What the Tennessee Casualty License Is
The Casualty line authorises liability business in Tennessee: personal and commercial auto liability, general liability, professional liability, umbrella and excess, and workers' compensation. Tennessee keeps it separate from Property, with its own examination, and at a test center that separation is complete - combined sittings exist only through OnVUE.
Casualty on its own is a slightly unusual place to stop. Most producers hold it alongside Property, and the two together give full personal and commercial authority. But the line stands on its own for people whose book is liability-led - commercial accounts, workers' compensation specialists, or producers moving in from another state with only casualty authority to reciprocate.
There is no pre-licensing course. Tennessee imposes education only on the title line, at 30 hours under T.C.A. 56-6-106.
Where Tennessee will slow you down is the background check, and it will slow you down only if you leave it late. TDCI wants fingerprints on file before the application arrives, not after - the opposite sequence to states that print you once you have applied. That module is below, and it is the reason to read this guide first even if Casualty is not your line.
Exam Options & Format
68 scored questions, 1 hour 45 minutes, $55. The paper is 50 General Knowledge items and 18 Tennessee-Specific items in a single appointment, plus 9 unscored pretest questions that lengthen the on-screen count to 77 without affecting your result.
The score is scaled to a 0-to-100 range and 70 is the bar - the Department's chosen reporting point, not a percentage correct. The handbook takes trouble over this: the reported score "is neither the number of questions answered correctly (the raw score) nor the percentage of questions answered correctly."
Pairing Casualty with Property costs $80 rather than $110 - but only online. The combined Property and Casualty sitting is an OnVUE product; Tennessee test centers do not offer it. That saving comes with the handbook's cap of two OnVUE attempts per exam line, after which the retake has to be in person.
There is no overall attempt limit on the Casualty exam. The rationing is temporal: 10 days before a first retake, 30 days before every one after that, and a 24-hour minimum between booking and testing.
Most Tested Topics on the Tennessee Casualty Exam
Two Tennessee statutes account for most of the state-specific casualty questions - the Financial Responsibility Law at T.C.A. 55-12-102 and the workers' compensation definition of employer at 50-6-102 - plus one case that decided how fault is apportioned:
| Concept | The Tennessee rule |
|---|---|
| Auto liability minimums | 25/50/25 - $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage (T.C.A. 55-12-102) |
| The 2022 property-damage increase | Property damage rose from $15,000 to $25,000 by Acts 2022, ch. 860, for policies required after 31 December 2022 - which is why older material still shows 25/50/15 |
| Single-limit alternative | A single-limit policy of not less than $65,000 applicable to one accident satisfies the requirement instead |
| Compliance without a policy | A cash deposit or bond of $65,000 with the Commissioner of Safety is an alternative to buying insurance |
| Fault system | Tort (at-fault) - Tennessee mandates no PIP, so it is not a no-fault state; MedPay is optional |
| Negligence doctrine | Modified comparative negligence under McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992) - recovery requires the claimant's fault to be less than the defendant's |
| The bar percentage | A claimant who is 50% or more at fault recovers nothing - Tennessee bars at 50, not at 51 |
| Uninsured motorist, how limits are set | UM limits equal the bodily injury liability limits stated in the policy unless the insured selects otherwise (T.C.A. 56-7-1201) |
| Uninsured motorist, rejection | The named insured may reject in writing completely, or select lower limits not below the statutory minimum; the signed rejection is "conclusively presumed to become a part of the policy... regardless of whether physically attached" |
| Uninsured motorist, re-offer | Once rejected with the same insurer, the coverage need not be re-offered unless the insured asks in writing |
| Auto residual market | The Tennessee Automobile Insurance Plan, the assigned-risk plan administered by AIPSO |
| Workers' comp, general threshold | An employer is one "using the services of not less than five (5) persons for pay" (T.C.A. 50-6-102) |
| Workers' comp, coal mining | One employee for pay - an employer "engaged in the mining and production of coal" is covered from the first (T.C.A. 50-6-102) |
| Workers' comp, construction | All construction services providers must carry workers' compensation on themselves, subject to the registry and other exemptions (T.C.A. 50-6-902) |
| Workers' comp, wage replacement | Temporary total disability pays 66 2/3% of the average weekly wage, capped at 110% of the state average weekly wage |
| Workers' comp, how to comply | Buy a policy or qualify as an approved self-insurer - Tennessee has no monopolistic state fund |
| Guaranty fund, the workers' comp double carve-out | The Tennessee Insurance Guaranty Association pays workers' compensation claims in full, and 56-12-107 exempts them from the $10,000,000 aggregate too: the cap applies "except in the case of a claim for benefits under workers' compensation coverage" |
A word on counting employees, because the five is not counted the way people assume. The Bureau of Workers' Compensation states that minors, working family members and part-time employees are included in the total, while business owners of sole proprietorships, partnerships and LLCs are not, and corporate officers count only if full-time. So a five-person operation whose owner is one of the five may sit below the threshold.
The auto minimums are the highest-value memorisation on this exam, and the reason is that half the material in circulation is out of date. For decades Tennessee was 25/50/15. Acts 2022, ch. 860 raised property damage to $25,000 for policies required after 31 December 2022, making the shorthand 25/50/25 - and note the pleasing symmetry that results, with the per-person bodily injury limit and the property damage limit now equal. If a practice question offers you 25/50/15 it is testing whether you have refreshed since 2022, and the repo's own data had this wrong until this revision.
The 50% bar is the second one people import wrongly. A large number of states run modified comparative negligence at a 51% bar - the claimant recovers so long as they are not more at fault than the defendant. Tennessee's rule from McIntyre v. Balentine is stricter: recovery requires the claimant's fault to be less than the defendant's, so an even split of fault produces no recovery at all. Fifty-fifty is a loss in Tennessee, and that is exactly the fact pattern a well-drafted question will hand you.
On workers' compensation, hold the exceptions rather than the rule. Five employees is easy. What gets tested is the pair of industries where the number collapses to one - coal mining, named in the statutory definition itself, and construction, which arrives by a different route at T.C.A. 50-6-902, where construction services providers must carry coverage on themselves. Two different statutes, one practical effect, and a stem about a two-man roofing crew is testing it.
Fingerprinting for a Tennessee License - Step by Step
Every resident producer applicant in Tennessee is fingerprinted, and the prints feed two checks: TDCI's page states that they "will be used to check the criminal history records of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)." State and federal, one capture.
The order is: pass, print, then file. Pearson VUE's handbook puts the first half plainly - "after passing the exam, a fingerprint-based background check is required. To schedule, go to www.identogo.com" - and TDCI supplies the second: "please complete your fingerprinting at least 2 business days PRIOR to submitting your application at www.nipr.com." The criminal history has to be waiting when the application lands, so the fingerprint appointment belongs in the same week as the exam, not the week after the application.
Tennessee's ORI codes are published and universal. There is no per-applicant code to wait for, which is precisely why you can be printed before you have passed anything. TDCI publishes three:
| Applicant type | ORI |
|---|---|
| Tennessee insurance producer | TN920680Z, transaction type IP |
| Tennessee public adjuster | TN920560Z |
| Tennessee navigator / certified application counselor | TN920783Z |
Step 1 - Register at IdentoGO. TDCI directs applicants to www.identogo.com, noting that online registration is "available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." Choose Digital Fingerprinting, then Schedule a New Appointment.
Step 2 - Enter the agency and your applicant type. The agency is the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance. Then pick the applicant type that matches the ORI above. Producers who select the public adjuster or navigator code have their prints routed to the wrong programme and will be told to start again - the codes are close enough to misread.
Step 3 - Choose a location and pay. TDCI's page says simply to "follow prompts for locations and payment." The fee appears in that flow. TDCI publishes no figure for it, which is why none is quoted anywhere in this guide; IdentoGO will confirm the cost on (855) 226-2937 if you would rather know before you start.
Step 3a - Note that the codes are the one thing you can act on early. Because the ORIs are universal rather than per-applicant, nothing about the registration depends on an application number you do not have yet. That is what makes the two-business-day lead time achievable at all.
Step 4 - Attend, then wait two business days. Bring identification. Then let the two business days elapse before you file - the wait is TDCI's, not IdentoGO's, and filing early does not accelerate it.
Step 5 - File at NIPR. By now you should also have passed your examination and let the separate 48-hour post-exam wait run - the handbook is explicit that "if filing electronically, you must wait forty-eight (48) hours." In practice the two clocks overlap: book IdentoGO the day you pass, and you are clear to file by the third business day.
Renewals and line additions are not re-printed. Fingerprints are submitted with the initial application, and a producer who stays continuously licensed is not printed again at renewal. Adding a line of authority to a live license does not trigger a new capture either. A license that lapses beyond the statutory reinstatement window is a different matter, because you are applying afresh.
What the Casualty License Costs
The published side is $55 for the exam and $50 for the NIPR application - about $105. The unpublished side is the fingerprint fee.
No figure for it appears here on purpose. TDCI's fingerprint page walks through the whole IdentoGO registration without naming a price and refers cost questions to IdentoGO on (855) 226-2937. Pearson VUE's handbook does not carry it either. Any number you find on a third-party site for Tennessee producer fingerprinting is unsourced, and this guide will not repeat it.
Pairing with Property saves $30 if you take the combined OnVUE sitting at $80 instead of two $55 exams - and the license application remains a single $50 filing regardless, because two lines of authority go on one license.
No pre-licensing course means no course fee. Tennessee's only statutory education requirement attaches to title insurance.
Retakes are $55, and the second failure costs a month. A reschedule inside 48 hours forfeits the fee outright, as does missing the appointment. Renewal, two years later, is $60 - doubled if it is late.
Eligibility Requirements
Be at least 18, pass the Casualty examination, pay the fees, and satisfy the Commissioner as to character and trustworthiness. T.C.A. 56-6-106 sets out what the application must show; 56-6-107 makes issuance mandatory once it does - an applicant meeting 56-6-105 and 56-6-106 "shall be issued an insurance producer license" unless denied under 56-6-112.
Tennessee grants no designation waivers. CLU, ChFC, CPCU, CIC and the rest buy you nothing here. T.C.A. 56-6-109 is the state's exemption-from-examination section, and the only exemption in it is for an individual previously licensed for the same lines of authority in another state - no credential is named. The other no-exam routes are the temporary license at 56-6-111 and limited-lines authority.
Fingerprinting is a condition of the initial resident application and is covered in full above. It applies once: continuous licensure carries it forward, and neither renewal nor a line addition re-triggers it.
Nothing in the statute conditions the license on Tennessee residence, an educational qualification or a carrier appointment. An appointment is a separate filing the insurer makes on your behalf after you are licensed.
Keeping the License Active
Important CE details: Plan on a dozen credits annually. The biennial figure is fixed at 24 whatever authority you carry, with an ethics component of three that resets from zero each cycle.
Twenty-four credit hours in each two-year term, three of them ethics - and the number does not move with your authority. A casualty-only producer and a producer holding all four major lines owe exactly the same 24 hours, because Tennessee sets the requirement per licensee.
Terms run 24 months from the last day of your birth month (T.C.A. 56-6-107). Courses and providers require TDCI approval, and an approved course may be repeated for credit only after two years.
Casualty authority on its own triggers no product-specific training. There is no workers' compensation course requirement and no liability-line mandate in Tennessee. But the moment you add property authority, one appears: rule 0780-01-56-.08(1)(c) imposes a one-time three-hour flood course on resident producers authorised to sell property insurance, or authorised to sell both property and casualty. It counts inside the 24 hours for one biennium. The Property & Casualty guide covers it.
The CE exemption is a 1994 grandfather clause for producers continuously licensed since 1 January of that year, and it is not a break for anyone else. Renewal timing, the double-fee penalty and the 12-month reinstatement window are set out in the Property & Casualty guide.
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